BlackBerry Developer Blog » Moscowhttp://devblog.blackberry.com
Mon, 03 Aug 2015 00:27:48 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/http://1.gravatar.com/blavatar/9ef0a66c09615fa946c4179662398878?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.png » Moscowhttp://devblog.blackberry.com
From Russia With #DevLuvhttp://devblog.blackberry.com/2012/07/blackberry-10-jam-world-tour-russia/
http://devblog.blackberry.com/2012/07/blackberry-10-jam-world-tour-russia/#commentsTue, 03 Jul 2012 19:42:39 +0000http://devblog.blackberry.com/?p=10058]]>Добрый день! It’s Adam Stanley from the BlackBerry® Developer Relations team here to share some details about my recent trip to Moscow for the BlackBerry® 10 Jam World Tour. Joined by my colleagues Andrey Kisselev, Paul Bernhardt, and Marysia Wiltshire, we were thrilled to see that the momentum of the previous roadshow events had created a level of enthusiasm that energized the air. My inbox was already filling up with messages from excited developers days before the event even started!

Once I arrived, I realized my expectations of Russia turned out to be completely different than I had imagined. For one, there were far less bears. There was however, a very mature and active development community eager to get their hands on and create apps using the BlackBerry 10 developer tools. Russian developers are ready for BlackBerry 10. Note to self: pack less bear spray next time.

Andrey Kisselev, opening the Moscow BlackBerry 10 Jam event.

Held at the Lotte Hotel in Moscow, our day started with Andrey Kisselev, Territory Sales Manager, welcoming an audience of almost 200 developers. Andrey set the tone for the day with some clear messages about the success of the BlackBerry development program and the foundations of the design for BlackBerry 10. I followed with an overview of the BlackBerry 10 experience and was happy to receive a few rounds of applause when I presented some of the new features such as the keyboard and glancing UI demos. Paul then provided an architecture overview and we witnessed immediate interest in the BlackBerry 10 platform and developer tools. These fundamentals of BlackBerry 10 design and platform capabilities translated and were received well by attendees.

In Soviet Russia, myths bust you!

The general session concluded with an exciting announcement by Vkontakte, one of the largest online social networks in Europe (more than 100 million active users). Alexander Cryuglov, technical evangelist from Vkontakte, was invited on stage to announce a two-part developer contest intended to produce the best Vkontakte applications for the BlackBerry platform. The first part of the contest offers a total prize pool of two million rubles ($70,000 USD) and a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet to developers who create a Vkontakte messenger application for BlackBerry smartphones. Contest details and conditions can be found online http://vk.com/bb_contest. The second part is for the best VKontakte app for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry 10. The app can be either a VKontakte client or any of its components such as messenger, photo editor etc. Two winners will receive a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and case as well as other special prizes from VKontakte.ru. Contest details and conditions can be found online http://vk.com/rim.

Once the dust settled from all the excitement during the morning keynote, attendees had a quick lunch and then decided on which technical track to participate in. At this point we realized that native developers represented the majority of attendees at the event! In fact, we ended up over 70% of all attendees in the Native sessions and there was a particular interest in Qt development. It turns out there are many Qt developers in Moscow, which is great news for BlackBerry 10 development.

We also had the pleasure of hosting many members of the Russian press, all of whom were eager to see BlackBerry 10 for the first time in their own country. I answered many questions about the expected user and developer experience for Russia 24, one of the largest TV channels in the country, as they covered the BlackBerry 10 Jam Moscow event and produced this video report.

I was very glad that our roadshow had a stop in Moscow. Russian developers are excited and committed to building BlackBerry 10 applications and we are likewise committed to their success. Moscow is a fantastic centralized location for Russian developers to meet and learn about BlackBerry 10 development. In fact, we received so much positive feedback throughout the event that the hash tag #BB10Jam was trending on Twitter for all of Russia throughout the day. Here are some messages from developers:

Translated: I will be 100% happy if every day of my life will be as exciting as was 06.26 at #BB10Jam

Thanks Moscow for a fantastic turnout and for being part of the BB10Jam tour. We distributed 182 BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha Devices and now we can’t wait to see all of the great BlackBerry 10 applications that will be created by Russian developers.